Sunderland are set to ask for permission to speak to Derek McInnes when the Aberdeen manager returns from his holiday.

It makes the Scot the front-runner in the marathon race to replace David Moyes, but he will need reassurances to seal the deal.

With his Dons team set to be broken up after a season which saw them finish as runners-up to Celtic in the Scottish league and cup, McInnes has encouraged Sunderland’s interest and they have decided the £1m required to bring him south would be money well spent.

But McInnes is understood to have reservations about his transfer budget at the Stadium of Light.

Aberdeen Manager Derek McInnes (Image: PA Wire)

News that Everton have agreed a British record £30m transfer fee for Jordan Pickford will help in rebuilding a poor and badly depleted squad, but it is impossible to disguise the club’s bad financial shape.

Last season’s accounts revealed £110.4m debts and Moyes resigned as manager on May 22 because he felt he did not have the sort of budget which would allow him to win promotion next season. Garry Monk was of interest after resigning as Leeds United manager for similar reasons, but joined Middlesbrough because he felt the Teessiders were best suited to match his ambitions.

The Black Cats’ procrastination over the £1m compensation needed to land McInnes and his assistant Tony Docherty was another signal of how tight finances are.

Sunderland earned £93m in television and prize money last season, compared to Championship winners Newcastle United’s £7m. Next year they will receive a parachute payment of around £55m and the wages of those players remaining – with the exception of Jack Rodwell – will be cut by 40 percent but it still does not leave much to work with.

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Chairman-owner Ellis Short is owed around £80m of the debt and showed last season his reluctance to put more in at a time he is looking to sell the club. There have been reports – denied by club sources – of a German consortium looking to buy Short out. That could change the picture for a prospective manager but the process will take some time – the reports said due diligence had not been started – and McInnes or any other candidate will surely want to commit sooner rather than later to his next job.

The next manager will need to sign a lot of players. Seven senior squad members are out of contract – offers have been put to John O’Shea and Sebastian Larsson but they too are assessing their options – and Jermain Defoe has triggered a relegation release clause to join Bournemouth on a free transfer. Fabio Borini is thought to have a clause allowing him to leave for £6m and others beyond Pickford are sure to depart. Despite having a year left on his contract, goalkeeper Vito Mannone said a long goodbye to fans after the final home game of last season after their agent Roberto De Fanti called his and Borini’s departures “inevitable”. Bryan Oviedo and Papy Djilobodji have also said they would prefer to stay in the Premier League, though they may find clubs are not beating down their door.

Sunderland also had three players on loan last season, who have returned to their parent clubs.

McInnes has managed in the Championship before, with Bristol City between 2011 and 2013. That spell started well but ended badly, and he may want to put the record straight.

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The leading candidates to be Sunderland’s next manager are all British, and in most cases have experience of managing in the second tier.

Sunderland’s remaining players are back in training on June 29. They have a five-day Austrian training camp before their opening pre-season friendly at Bury on July 7.

The Championship season starts on August 4, with potentially eight fixtures before the transfer window closes and if at all possible Sunderland will want to hit the ground running if they are to have a chance of competing for promotion with better-placed rivals, particularly neighbours Boro.